Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Monday, August 14, 2017
City of Bones - Michael Connelly
I've been trying to find the genres of books that most interest me recently. Growing up, I understandably wasn't into crime novels and thrillers, rather I was into those typical children and teen novels; Harry Potter (still love with all my heart), Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, Divergent, Inkheart, etc. I was never into the classics or the comics (still not into comics, just not my thing) either. These past few years, I fooled around with different types of books. I started reading crime novels and quickly found myself enjoying them. This book just so happens to be the centre of my scrutiny today.
Before I get into the contents itself, can I just say that I bought this perfectly intact second-hand paperback book for a dollar?! A STEAL.
As a brief, brief summary for you to get an idea of the book, it starts off when a dog fetches a bone, a human bone, while out with his owner. Detective Harry Bosch must get to the bottom of the case. Only one thing that puts a wrench in his gut; it's a bone from a child. He uncovers a case almost twenty years old and struggles to find the evidence he needs to put the monster who did it behind bars.
Harry Bosch is part of a series of books Connelly has written. Harry Bosch's endeavours are even a TV show, which I just recently found out can be found on Amazon Prime. I will have to check that out.
This would be the first book I've read from Connelly and I liked it. It's a very different writing style in comparison to previous books I've read. The writing and storytelling is very succinct, no fluff. I love that. Unnecessary writing is one of my pet peeves, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that. Since the writing was so easy to read and comprehend, I devoured this book faster than most. I'm not entirely familiar with Connelly's work and style, but I think he puts more care into the plot and characters themselves than the manner in which the plot and characters are presented in. If that makes sense. I think that's probably why there's no unnecessary writing.
The plot itself is typical of a crime novel. It leads you to believe one person did it but then something else pops up that changes everything. There are many suspects that come up in the story and Bosch tries to figure out who the true suspect is. He's led to believe one suspect did it, and the case seems to have come to a close, but then he realizes that something isn't right. Bosch's detective skills are spot-on, and he covers his mistakes.
Overall, this book was an enjoyable read. The story line is intriguing and I never found myself wanting to put the book down. I'm sure to read more books from Bosch. I bought "The Brass Verdict" and I plan on reading that sometime soon also.
Before I get into the contents itself, can I just say that I bought this perfectly intact second-hand paperback book for a dollar?! A STEAL.As a brief, brief summary for you to get an idea of the book, it starts off when a dog fetches a bone, a human bone, while out with his owner. Detective Harry Bosch must get to the bottom of the case. Only one thing that puts a wrench in his gut; it's a bone from a child. He uncovers a case almost twenty years old and struggles to find the evidence he needs to put the monster who did it behind bars.
Harry Bosch is part of a series of books Connelly has written. Harry Bosch's endeavours are even a TV show, which I just recently found out can be found on Amazon Prime. I will have to check that out.
This would be the first book I've read from Connelly and I liked it. It's a very different writing style in comparison to previous books I've read. The writing and storytelling is very succinct, no fluff. I love that. Unnecessary writing is one of my pet peeves, and I'm sure I'm not alone on that. Since the writing was so easy to read and comprehend, I devoured this book faster than most. I'm not entirely familiar with Connelly's work and style, but I think he puts more care into the plot and characters themselves than the manner in which the plot and characters are presented in. If that makes sense. I think that's probably why there's no unnecessary writing.
The plot itself is typical of a crime novel. It leads you to believe one person did it but then something else pops up that changes everything. There are many suspects that come up in the story and Bosch tries to figure out who the true suspect is. He's led to believe one suspect did it, and the case seems to have come to a close, but then he realizes that something isn't right. Bosch's detective skills are spot-on, and he covers his mistakes.
Overall, this book was an enjoyable read. The story line is intriguing and I never found myself wanting to put the book down. I'm sure to read more books from Bosch. I bought "The Brass Verdict" and I plan on reading that sometime soon also.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
I actually had to read this book for school. And surprisingly, for once, it was pretty good.
Liesel Meminger is the main character in the book, and her story is told through the perspective of "Death" in Germany during the 30's and the Second World War. She is a young German girl who is fostered by two poor parents and as the story goes on, Liesel grows into a teenage girl. Along the way, she develops family relationships, makes friends, learns valuable lessons, and creates her own values, all while the horrors of Hitler's rise and the war occur. It's a coming-of-age novel that will strike a chord with readers.
Let me start by saying that this book is bursting with literary devices. The entire book is quite literally one giant metaphor, as "Death" tells the story. Every page has a metaphor somewhere, used in some way. You could be talking about socks and there would still be some deep metaphor made by the author. This is really great for analyzing and interpreting the multiple meanings. When I was discussing this book in a seminar, we all interpreted the book differently, and our answers were all reasonable. The descriptions are so detailed and the language used is not complicated and not too easy, which I like in a book.
The fact that Death tells the story, I found, was very interesting. It created a lot of literary devices and all, but it was also interesting to see how Zusak used Death to illustrate its role in the war. He talks about how "busy" Death becomes in the war and how demanding Hitler is of Death. I think it's quite clever, and it was enjoyable to read these parts.
The thing I didn't like about the book is that it is so unnecessarily long. There are countless parts in the book where I could not find a single explanation as to what it adds to the book. Trust me when I say I genuinely tried to find its relevance to the book; I was being graded on my analysis. Not only were these parts useless, but they were just plain boring! Some characters have no real purpose in the book. In fact, they just take away from the story. This book would be so much better if it was less than 584 pages.
Overall, this book was pretty enjoyable. I would recommend this to freshmen, not sophomores (as I was when I read this book). Thanks for reading!
Liesel Meminger is the main character in the book, and her story is told through the perspective of "Death" in Germany during the 30's and the Second World War. She is a young German girl who is fostered by two poor parents and as the story goes on, Liesel grows into a teenage girl. Along the way, she develops family relationships, makes friends, learns valuable lessons, and creates her own values, all while the horrors of Hitler's rise and the war occur. It's a coming-of-age novel that will strike a chord with readers.
Let me start by saying that this book is bursting with literary devices. The entire book is quite literally one giant metaphor, as "Death" tells the story. Every page has a metaphor somewhere, used in some way. You could be talking about socks and there would still be some deep metaphor made by the author. This is really great for analyzing and interpreting the multiple meanings. When I was discussing this book in a seminar, we all interpreted the book differently, and our answers were all reasonable. The descriptions are so detailed and the language used is not complicated and not too easy, which I like in a book.The fact that Death tells the story, I found, was very interesting. It created a lot of literary devices and all, but it was also interesting to see how Zusak used Death to illustrate its role in the war. He talks about how "busy" Death becomes in the war and how demanding Hitler is of Death. I think it's quite clever, and it was enjoyable to read these parts.
The thing I didn't like about the book is that it is so unnecessarily long. There are countless parts in the book where I could not find a single explanation as to what it adds to the book. Trust me when I say I genuinely tried to find its relevance to the book; I was being graded on my analysis. Not only were these parts useless, but they were just plain boring! Some characters have no real purpose in the book. In fact, they just take away from the story. This book would be so much better if it was less than 584 pages.
Overall, this book was pretty enjoyable. I would recommend this to freshmen, not sophomores (as I was when I read this book). Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)